Three Cool Things About Catman

I haven't been reading DC for long, so I don't have the history to write one of these things about most of the characters--however, since I've read Villains United and have been reading Secret Six, this one I think I might know enough about.

1. The redemption theme. Bad guy trying to be a good guy, more or less. However, in Catman's case this isn't due purely to any newly-realized ethical sense, it's more complex than that. I hope they keep the details of his spiritual awakening as vague as they have been.

But the notion of seeing that they way you're living your life is just not working and making the effort to change it? That's admirable. (Think of all the villains whose plans keep failing, over and over and over, and yet as soon as they're out of jail they're back to business as usual.)

2. Moral ambiguity and live-and-let-live. Catman is no longer a real villain, but he's far from a real hero. Among his peer group (the Six) he's closest to hero-dom, but he doesn't seem to impose his own relatively new morality on his fellows, and he has no problem associating with those whose ethical principles may differ from his own. The important thing is the relationship he has with the others--any differences they have come second to that, and he doesn't nag, although he will press for his own methods when that's an option.

This is interesting because you really don't know which way he's going to go. It seems unlikely that he'd return to pure villainy, and he does seem to have a fairly strong heroic impulse at this point, but honestly I see him comfortably sitting on the fence for some time to come.

3. The physical reflection of his fall. You really don't see this in comics--yes, people fall from grace, but what this seems to mean in practical terms is that they stop shaving. Regardless of activity level, superheroes and villains tend to keep their heroic physique effortlessly. I suppose they're easier to draw that way.

Catman, at his lowest emotional and spiritual point, fell apart physically as well--he put on weight, he got out of shape, not only could he not do the job because of his mental state, he simply couldn't do it physically. I think this reflects his character in some ways--that while he isn't someone who operates purely on instinct, he is someone who is very physical, whose body is closely tied to self. The key to his return to life had to do with returning to a more basic level of existence, with the lions in Africa.